The Influence of Afterlife on Life
Religious Studies A: AQA GCSE Religions, topic 2.1.9
Belief in the Afterlife
The belief in the afterlife affects the way that Christians go about their lives.
Jesus' death
- Belief in the afterlife helps make sense of Jesus' death and his resurrection as an act of atonement and as proof of life after death.
Living a good life
- Christians have confidence that those who live bad lives will be punished by God.
- Without this belief, many Christians feel life has no purpose: If bad people are never punished life seems to favour those who are selfish and uncaring.
- Some Christians worry that the belief encourages them to do good actions in the hope of reward, like children. They believe a good Christian should do what is right whatever the consequences.
Conflicting beliefs
- Some people say that Christians have a problem believing in an all-loving God, while also believing in hell as a place of unending punishment.
Test yourself on The Influence of Afterlife on Life
How does belief in the afterlife influence the lives of Christians?
Why does the Christian belief in the afterlife make believing God as all-loving difficult for some?
Why do some Christians worry that belief in the afterlife encourages them to do good actions in the hope of reward?